1. Field of the Invention
This invention is generally directed to dental instruments and especially metallic scalers and curettes which may either be of a conventional hand held type or of an ultrasonic or vibrator type and more particularly to a method of identifying the size and angle of curvature of the cutting blades associated with such instruments by providing a physical annular marking on the handle of the instruments which marking will indicate to the practitioner which teeth and in which location of the patient's mouth a given instrument has been designed for use. More specifically, the present invention includes a marking system which will include forming a series of 1, 2 or 3 grooves or rings around the periphery of one end of the handle which rings will be spaced in relationship with respect to the end of the handle. The spacing of the rings with respect to one end of the handle will indicate first, whether the instrument is to be used on either anterior or posterior teeth as the rings will be spaced from one end of the handle with rings adjacent the end of the handle being to the anterior scalers and those toward the center of the handle being the posterior scalers; second, the rings will reflect which end of an instrument is to be used for treating distal or mesial surface areas; third, for posterior teeth (bicuspid to third molar), one or two rings will indicate which upper and lower lingual or buccal surfaces the instrument's cutting blades have been designed for; and fourth, three rings will designate scalers or curettes having specialized cutting blades.
2. History of the Related Art
Although many dental instruments including scalers and curettes would appear to have generally similar cutting blades associated therewith, in practice, the cutting blades may vary in size and configuration depending upon the area of the patient's mouth for which an instrument is specifically designed. More particularly, not only the length of the cutting blades but the angle of the cutting blades relative to the handle of an instrument will vary depending upon whether the implement is to be used on the distal or mesial surface or the buccal or lingual side of a tooth and will also vary depending upon whether the tooth is an anterior or posterior tooth. Further, the size of the tooth or roots will have an affect on the configuration of the cutting blades.
Due to the foregoing and in an effort to assist dental practitioners in the selection of proper scalers and curettes, most manufacturers provide a number which is applied to the handle of a dental implement to indicate the preferred area of use. The conventional numbering system employed is referred to as the Gracey System wherein low numbers such as 1-2 and 3-4 are used to indentify anterior teeth and larger numbers 11-12 and 13-14 the posterior bicuspid and molars. Unfortunately, such manufacturer numbered markings are not easily visible as most numbers are simply stamped into small areas or one side of the handle of an implement with such numbers being visible only upon careful examination of the entire periphery of the instrument handle. In view of the foregoing, it is difficult for a dental practitioner to visually inspect the blades or numbers associated with a group of instruments which are located in side-by-side relationship with respect to one another and easily identify the instrument which is necessary for scaling or curetting a particular tooth or root surface within a patient's mouth.
In order to overcome such difficulties, it has been proposed, such as in Linden U.S. Pat. No. 4,882,867 to mold the handles of dental instruments to incorporate in the handle sleeves or rings of different colored material which will extend outwardly from the handle to indicate the type of instrument. This document also discusses that in the past, attempts have been made to color portions of dental instrument handles in order to indicate the function for which an instrument is to be utilized In the patent it is noted that, during repeated sterilizations, such colorized markings are frequently destroyed and therefore are not effective for prolonged use.
The use of molded components in a dental instrument handle is also not practical. Such molded components may be raised with respect to the surface of the handle of an instrument and thereby interfere with the use of such an instrument. Also, as such an instrument must be repeatedly sterilized, it is preferred that it be formed of metallic material with the handles, shanks and blades be as continuous as possible and nonporous. With a molded instrument, the handle will be made of a composite plastic material which is not as suitable for repeated usages in a sterilized environment. Such molded structures may develop minute cracks or separations in which viruses, bacteria and germs may be harbored. Further, such a marking system is not efficient in allowing more conventional metallic dental instruments to be marked without requiring a complete modification of the handles associated with such instruments. Therefore, such a marking system is not practical when considering the number of manufacturers and the general preference for all metallic instruments to meet today's requirements of complete sterilization.
In areas outside of dentistry, it has been proposed to mark the handles of metallic tools for purposes of identification. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,984,839 to Murray, a marking system for identifying drill bits is disclosed wherein painted grooves are applied in the surface of the tool with the color of the groove indicating relative sizes of the drill bits. As with prior art dental marking systems utilizing a painted surface to indicate the size or function of an instrument, such a marking system is not conducive for use in dentistry where the dental instruments must be repeatedly sterilized which process would ultimately deteriorate the colored markings associated with such instruments.
Additional examples of marking systems for tools are disclosed in Hamas et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,916 to and Sedgwick U.S. Pat. No. 3,251,150.